


For You

by tiredandjaded (CallingVersatile)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, adrien has so many issues, you can't keep pretending forever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-02 21:18:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8683717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallingVersatile/pseuds/tiredandjaded
Summary: The weight of expectations and responsibility is finally too much for Adrien. When all he can think to do is escape, he goes to the one person he hopes he can trust with that weight.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [adjit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/adjit/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Here for you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5259374) by [adjit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/adjit/pseuds/adjit). 



> heyo, this here is a remix of adjit's wonderful fic Here For You, which is super cute and got me to like this ship way back when. 
> 
> this is also basically me headcanoning a bunch of shit wrong with Adrien, but mental illness can be caused by harsh conditions (like having an absent yet domineering father who always expects perfection), and as someone whos got hella anxiety/other issues herself, the way he acts is just too familiar for me not to write it in.

Nine o clock on a Thursday night found Nino relaxing on his bed, tapping away at an old Nintendo DS with his legs kicked up behind him. There were times when the limitless expanse of the internet somehow felt boring and the desire to create was simply absent, and it was one such mood that had inspired him to dig out the console and a Pokemon Ruby game. After some dust removal, the dark red cartridge had fired up perfectly, and Nino whiled away a few hours to the chipper tunes of battle music and simulated cries. 

This is interrupted by three sharp knocks on his window, one after another without pause. 

Nino startles and nearly flings his DS, his attention snapping first to the door (expecting parental intrusion) and then the window. It’s been dark for a while, so it’s easy to spot the two glowing green eyes peering at him from the upper left corner of his window. 

“Chat Noir?” he asks, disbelieving. The green eyes bob, down and then up. Nino realizes numbly that the owner of the eyes--who can only be Chat Noir-- is upside down, and that they’re nodding. He’s never really interacted with the superhero, so Nino is dumbfounded to find him here, at 9:30, with no akuma about. Nonetheless, he is here, which means he really ought to let him in. 

Nino gets to his feet and slides down the top pane of his window, thanking his lucky stars that he still hasn’t replaced the screen he broke a month ago. With--well, catlike grace, Chat Noir flips down from where he’d been hanging (Nino has no idea what he was holding onto up there), and lands in the middle of the room, his back to Nino. 

“Chat Noir?” Nino asks again, still not quite believing this is happening. An actual superhero is standing in his room, and Nino has no idea why, and then he hears a sniffle. 

If he was shocked before, that’s nothing compared to the realization that Chat Noir--who still hasn’t spoken a word to him--is _crying._

“Are you… are you okay?” he asks hesitantly. The words seem to be almost too much for the superhero standing in his room. His tail wraps around his leg and he drops to his knees with a painful thud, then lets out a choked sob. When he speaks, it’s scratchy and hesitant and wrong. 

“Nino, I-” 

And then there’s a wave of bright green light rippling over him. 

And then there’s a familiar head of golden hair, followed by the same white button down shirt he sees at school every day, because-

Because Adrien is sitting in his bedroom. Sobbing his eyes out. 

In a flash, Nino is off the bed and kneeling in front of his friend. He discovers that Adrien is an absolute mess, cheeks and eyes red in a way that only comes from an intense bout of crying. His nose is runny and he’s sniffing, but attempting to do it silently. In all his time knowing the guy, Nino has never seen Adrien lose control like this, and through some strange quirk of his brain, that’s actually freaking him out more than the fact that his best friend is Chat Fucking Noir. 

He quickly compartmentalizes both. 

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” 

Adrien just stares at him for a second, green eyes still brimming with tears. He looks away before beginning to speak. 

“I’m fine,” he says to the floor, resolutely not looking at Nino. “Other than the obvious.” 

Nino reaches out, places what he hopes is a comforting hand on Adrien’s shoulder. His shirt is sweaty, and he’s obviously been running hot. 

“You should sit down. Wait, no--bed.” 

Disbelieving Adrien is back, but Nino is already on his feet, and when he offers a hand, Adrien allows him to pull him up and lead him the few feet to Nino’s bed. When he checks, Nino discovers that Adrien is not wearing shoes. 

_He must’ve been in socks when he… became Chat Noir._

Once Adrien has been given a good selection of pillows to lean against (though he seemed just as inclined to sit there motionlessly), Nino sits himself down right next to his friend and asks, 

“What happened?”

Adrien shrugs halfheartedly. 

“Nothing. Everything. The usual.” 

Yeah, that was definitely the sound of Nino’s heart breaking, ‘cause didn’t that just sum it up perfectly. He waited for him to continue. 

“It was… I don’t know. It just happened. I can’t--I can’t do it, I can’t do everything and that’s what he wants. I… panicked, I couldn’t breathe, and Plagg--Plagg didn’t know what to do. I transformed, I got out, but Ladybug… Ladybug was probably doing something in her non-fucked-up civilian life. Oh yeah, I’m Chat Noir! Why aren’t you freaking out about that?” 

Nino slings an arm around him and pulls Adrien in for an awkward but heartfelt side hug. 

“Dude, I am totally gonna freak out about that, but I’m trying really hard to do it later. Hopefully after you feel better.” 

Adrien fixes him with a watery look. There’s a ghost of a smile on his face, but it’s a sad and helpless thing, no humor or joy to it. 

“I don’t think I’m gonna feel better,” he confesses, barely audible. “I’m so tired.” 

“I’ll stay with you. Until you feel better, even if you never do,” Nino says. Miraculously, that cheesy line is what finally gets a chuckle out of Adrien. Even if there’s only a hint of life in it, it’s better than nothing. 

Suddenly and without a word of warning, Adrien starts to cry again. 

“Fuck, dude, are you okay? Sorry, did I-” but apparently it wasn’t something he said, ‘cause Adrien just flops down on Nino’s lap (Like a cat, his mind helpfully supplies) and lays there. 

“Don’t apologize,” he rasps, then makes a face at the sound of his own voice. “You’ve been perfect. I thought--I thought you’d be mad, or confused, or… I don’t know.” 

“Never,” Nino swears hotly. “I would never be mad at you for this, I mean, fuck, why would I even--Like, ‘Oh that damn Adrien, always saving the entire city of Paris behind my back.’ Of course I’m not mad, dude.” 

Adrien buries his face in Nino’s t-shirt, ever-so-subtly shifting himself further onto his friend’s lap, as if Nino didn’t know by now how much of a cuddle bug the boy was. 

“I never said it was a reasonable fear,” he grumbled. Nino brought a hand up and began petting his hair, running his fingers through it to straighten it out where it had become mussed up. 

“That’s okay.” 

For a few minutes they sit there, Adrien comfortably heating Nino’s lap while Nino plays with his hair. He doesn’t have to say anything for Nino to know that it’s the happiest he’s been since getting here. At one point Adrien actually starts to purr quietly, to Nino’s silent disbelief. He doesn’t even bring it up; what do you even say to that? It’s both the strangest and strangely cutest thing he had seen in a long time. 

Until Adrien suddenly snaps upright (narrowly missing Nino’s) chin, and shoots him a panicked look. 

“Nino,” he says, voice dripping with horror, “I’m going to have to go back.” All at once, it’s like the panic had never abated. Everything about his posture screams fear and tension, the way his shoulders hunch up and he tries to look smaller. 

“Whoa, hold on-” 

“Nino, I can’t go back to that, I don’t-” 

“Adrien, you can-” 

“No, I can’t pretend it’s okay, I can’t go-”

“You’re not going to! Not tonight.” That finally gets Adrien’s attention, draws him away from his spiraling fears for a moment. Nino rests his hands on Adrien’s shoulders, leans in, and gently bumps his head against his friend’s. “You can stay here tonight, dude,” he says softly. “Hell, you can probably stay here tomorrow night, if you need to. I could probably talk my mom into it. But the point is, you’re okay for now. You don’t have to fix this right away. So can we just… chill?” 

Adrien blinks at him a few times in surprise, like Nino pulled some magic trick that he’s struggling to comprehend. Nino can almost feel the panic process being derailed and it is _wonderful._

“Y-yeah, okay,” Adrien manages after a few seconds, and the soft smile he’s wearing has Nino’s heart feeling ten times lighter. “We can do that.” 

Is Nino still incredibly worried about where all this will end? Of course. And does a huge part of him need to know everything about how his best friend is apparently Chat Noir? Of course. Does he know he’s screwed because he’ll have to keep this knowledge from Alya? Nino hadn’t even thought of that; he sure as hell does now. 

But that wasn’t as bad as having the horrible father Adrien does, or actually being Chat Noir and having his it be his identity on the line, his responsibility to save people. So if Adrien could get to a moment of calm, there was no way he’d ruin it for him.

So Nino ends up reclining against the mound of pillows, with Adrien laying on his crossed legs. It’s kind of (incredibly) cute, and Nino can’t stop smiling at the serene expression of the boy in his lap. Whatever tomorrow brings, tonight will be okay. 

And then he hears it. 

“Adrien… are you purring?” 

“...I don’t want to talk about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i hope u liked what is basically my Adrien<>Nino fic. if ur wondering whether or not this was a romantic ship or just platonic comfort... im not really entirely sure! i think it could have the potential for romance, but it was the wrong time for it. 
> 
> also the reason plagg was so absent was bc he felt bad that he couldn't help Adrien. so he uncharacteristically kept back, and let the person who could help do that.


End file.
